Aeropress
If someone has told me that for less than £30, I could create some of the best coffee I've ever had the pleasure of drinking within 5 minutes, every time, with no mess, no faffing and no learning curve... I don't think I would've believed it.
Enter. The Aeropress.
Having been an avid Aeropress user for a number of years now, I spent a while trying to figure out how I personally prefer my brew. If you've never had the absolute joy of using an Aeropress and if you've never had the incredible taste that comes from an Aeropress, then I'm sorry, but you honestly have been missing out.
This isn't just my coffee snobbery coming out. If the Aeropress was a technical, faffy and elitist way of brewing a coffee then I wouldn't be writing this now. The fact is, it's the exact opposite.
I'm not going to explain how an Aeropress works because there's plenty (and I mean plenty) of videos and tutorials knocking around that there internets for you to have a look-over. All I will say about it is that you need to get hold of one if you don't already.
Competition Aeropress
Yes; you read that correctly. The Aeropress has grown so popular over the years that there are now dedicated Aeropress competitions. Understandably, unless you're pretty interested in coffee and, in particular, the Aeropress, this probably sounds quite weird.
To be totally honest, the entries into these competitions are properly technical. Every single part of the brewing process has been scrutinised and targeted for tweaking to create the best coffee possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48ics7oymw8
Since seeing some of the competition entries in video format, I was pretty intrigued to try a few to see which I prefer. With the information I had researched and a bit of my own trial and error; I took a stroll down the route of perfecting my own preferred method of brewing coffee in the Aeropress.
Now obviously, the below method isn't so easy to create everywhere I am. Most of the time, I'll just brew an Aeropress the standard way, using an out of the bag grind and boiling water. In all honesty, this method still tastes brilliant!
Beans
Personally, I'm not a massive fan of dark roast coffee. So I generally use a medium or light roasted bean, I'd say something like a 2 or 3 strength coffee in supermarkets.
Grind
Somewhere between medium and coarse grind. If you're getting really into coffee grinding, this depends on the humidity and temperature of the room and the beans that you're grinding but as a rule of thumb, medium to coarse is where I sit. Pre-ground coffee from most shops will come ground to this level as they're generally packaged as Cafetiere/French Press style grounds.
Water
Unless you've got a thermometer handy (which most people don't) somewhere not quite boiling water. Somewhere close to the 80c mark works perfectly. If you have got a thermometer, obviously boiling water to a certain temperature is a lot easier.
Method
Inverted. If you're not familiar with the methods of pressing basically the inverted method is the exact opposite to how you're shown in your Aeropress book.
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